The world of payment and unified commerce contains a variety of complex business processes, risks, compliance standards, and so much more.

Senior Vice President of Business Solutions at Amaryllis, Bruce Shirey, joins host Tyler Kern to talk about navigating this complex landscape.

Shirey wanted to provide a deeper insight into the arena of payment facilitation. One successful payment facilitator, or PayFac, is Shopify. They did not start out as a PayFac. Originally, Shopify was a merchant eCommerce software platform. Shopify became a fully registered PayFac, and now 61% of their revenue is from payments.

Shirey said some companies are too focused on technology and not on the processes and regulations in the payment world. He said that companies should really identify the true objectives the company is trying to accomplish. Shirey thinks that companies typically underestimate requirements, length of time for registration and certification, and the cost of becoming a payment facilitator.

On day one of CES 2020, Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B, checked in with Andy Travers, CEO, Ceres Holographic, to learn more about the innovative solutions and business opportunities hologram technology provides. Travers began his journey with Ceres focused on the commercial side of holographic technology, and preparing this technology for new markets, i.e., the transportation industry. Ceres design an adaptable, holographic process for use in the cars of today and tomorrow.

The evolving technology from the traditional surface relief hologram, used in credit cards, to volume holography allows for a wide range of display applications, like automobile windscreens, because it removes the rainbow effect. While Ceres’ primary focus is on holographic technology, they realized the importance of system design as well. “Our team is not just holographers. We’ve got system optical designers, computational people,” said Travers. “we’re even extending our resources to do the content, because with the content you need to know how the hologram and the system works so you know what content you can generate, in real-time, when you’re driving a car.”

Two types of holographic display technologies in use now are transparent displays, built into the car windshield, and augmented reality hubs. Transparent displays can reduce dashboard clutter and be used with side mirrors as well. Augmented reality hubs have an extended projection range with a multitude of potential information and advertising capabilities. Travers said as the demand for smartphone use in automobiles increases, the need for holographic technology to display that information will make it a ‘must-have’ for consumers.

On day one of CES 2020, Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B, sat down with Michael Murray, Executive VP, Aceinna, for a discussion on the latest in sensor technology and GNSS (global navigation satellite systems.) Murray explained how his company uses the most advanced gyro technology in their IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) platform to provide a better sensing outcome in GNSS, and they are working on even more highly advanced gyro capabilities.

AI is a critical component to making a better positioning system, but crowdsourcing is the key to building strong AI. Murray said his company relies on crowdsourcing their AI to learn what the mistakes are, resolve those issues, and improve their AI.

For shipping and logistics, innovations in precision technology are paramount. Delivering products to end-users on time, in a fast, efficient, and safe manner is the goal for all industries, and Murray knows the advancements in sensing provide marked improvements to the process. Smaller companies looking for a competitive edge over larger ones, may find the move towards fully autonomous systems beneficial, said Murray.

Part of the philosophy of providing an open-source product, said Murray, is to make the best product for the end-user. “If I do anything well in my job,” said Murray, “it’s to focus on the best problems to solve for you and me as opposed to just making the best widget.”

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Digital Money is Still Money with Adi Ekshtain and Viko Bargig of Amaryllis Payment Solutions

Electronic payment technology is becoming the de-facto option across numerous industries. On this episode of MarketScale’s Software and Technology podcast, Adi Ekshtain, Co-Founder of Amaryllis Payment Solutions, and Viko Bargig, Solutions Architect for Amaryllis, sat down with Sean Heath to discuss the challenges of developing the latest and greatest technologies.

The world is moving toward the several digital transaction types more quickly each day, but the basic nature of the transaction remains quite simple, Ekshtain said. “There is a lot of commonality between different payment modalities and one of them is, of course, there is a payer and a payee.”

The perceived challenge in managing all of these different payment processes is actually less difficult than one would expect, explained Bargig. “It’s not difficult. It’s more the responsibility aspect of the business. It’s to make sure that everything is always up and running and everything is always available and accessible, regardless of the action or transaction you are trying to process.”

Ekshtain also explained that all of the various currencies, both physical and digital, are easily added to the system Amaryllis has created.

“We can plug them into our platform. We can accept them and, where possible, we can even disburse funds using those currencies. So, for us, we don’t look at them as the competition. We look at them as part of our ecosystem.”

Are you call-recording compliant? The answer is pretty murky, actually, depending on the country or state you're located in.

That uncertainty is leaving call center managers fearful for their own compliance, according to a survey conducted by OrecX, a Chicago-based company that provides contact centers with call-recording software for customer service, compliance and employee performance. Host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Kevin Levi, Vice President of Marketing for OrecX, to discuss in this new episode of MarketScale's Software & Technology podcast.

In September, OrecX surveyed call center managers spanning a number of industries including financial, collections, insurance, healthcare and high-tech to discover what regulations were most concerning to them.

"Number one was GDPR, number two was call monitoring consent by individual states in the United States, and then PCI, Do Not Call and HIPAA after that," Levi said. "These are the issues everyone's really dealing with."

Specifically, more than a quarter of respondents said heavily-enforced privacy regulations for Europe's GDPR laws (43%), PCI credit card data (37%) and health-related HIPAA (27%) were most concerning. Survey respondents were allowed to select multiple regulations, so the numbers don't add up to 100 percent.

"The best default is to make sure you get consent from whoever is on the call," Levi said. "If you're talking to a customer, prospect or partner and you chose to record, make sure you're getting every person on the call's consent."

For more resources about call-recording compliance, OrecX offers eBooks, blogs and a primer on relevant laws to help consumers better understand the ins and outs of call recording. Visit https://www.orecx.com/resources/ for information.

Megan Weis, VP and general manager of finance & accounting for outsourcing services at Personiv, spoke with host Geoffrey Short on this episode of the Software & Technology Podcast. Weis brought her 20-plus years of experience in the finance and accounting world to this discussion on how companies can focus their employees’ energy on the tasks and initiatives that drive businesses forward.

There are everyday business tasks and activities a company must perform to keep operations running, but can these tasks overwhelm staff and cause more important initiatives from getting the attention they need?

“Getting these everyday tasks done really takes up the majority of a finance & accounting department’s time,” Weis said.

One suggestion, Weis said, is consolidating accounting systems. Process workflow was another area Weis pointed to as a way of understanding and removing bottlenecks. Finally, Weis said, outsourcing some accounting processes can also help companies streamline operations.

“I believe data-driven decision-making is opening people’s eyes to what they can do if they have the right talent in place and the time to analyze data,” Weis said.

If companies want to focus on data analysis and don’t have the time, outsourcing smaller, everyday processes is a solution. Weis said companies are typically using only 1% of the data they collect.

“Imagine what companies could accomplish by using up to 10% of the data they collect,” she said.

Mark Davidson, IT manager at the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, joined host Tyler Kern on this episode of the Software & Technology Podcast to discuss the importance of protecting business and personal data. Every day people are sharing information over social networks, and how much of that personal information is being shared and disseminated is an area Davidson cautioned listeners to consider.

Davidson said if passwords are easily guessable and tied to familiar information that can be pieced together from social media interactions, people could be opening themselves up to hackers.

“People can get into your bank accounts; people can get into your social accounts,” Davidson warned.

“A huge tip,” he offered, “is to change yaour passwords regularly and don’t use the same one for everything. If a hacker gets your email password, and it is the same one as your bank password, they now have both.”

Dual-factor identification is something Davidson recommended to protect personal information and reduce the ability of hackers to penetrate an account.

Another critical tool in the cybersecurity war chest is the principle of least privilege (POLP.) Davidson said this practice means people only have access to the things on their network that they need to do their job. Doing this can limit the scope of an attack if someone in a company does get hacked.

Another tip Davidson provided is to create long passwords and consider using sentences broken up with characters. With the increase of online threats, it’s more important than ever to keep business and personal IT safe.

The world of commerce platforms now expands beyond transactional payments—information is king! Host Tyler Kern and Barry Stearn, director of partner success for Europe's division of FreedomPay, discussed emerging payment trends, and how this fast-evolving landscape is becoming more complex.

“Payments has become really an information business,” said Stearn. “Yes, there is a transactional exchange, there is a packet of data that passes from the merchant through to the processor for authorization…but built in that consumer journey, look at all the elements that exist around that process.”

Stearn went on to explain how the back end-data engine can help businesses, e.g. the service industry, capitalize on the many customer interactions at those establishments.

“At Freedom Pay, we have the ability not only to capture information at the point of sale around what that loyal customer is buying, we can also build out an analytical token of said consumer profile," Stearn said.

This securely stored environment allows the client to better understand who their loyal customer is, and to properly market offers and promotions that make sense.

On this episode of the MarketScale Software & Technology Podcast, David Barclay, VP of Marketing at Tidel, joined host Geoffrey Short to discuss how Tidel can provide car dealerships with secure, automated cash operations’ solutions.

People may not think of car dealerships as the type of establishment that traditionally handle cash, but through down payments, accessories, and the car service department, cash is something all dealerships contend with.

Barclay walked through all of the various areas in a car dealership where cash comes into play. One case study Barclay referred to throughout the podcast is a company called Sonic Automotive. Tidel helped streamline and automate Sonic’s cash process through installation of their Smart Safe product.

The reality is: car dealerships are taking in cash (checks and paper money) on a daily basis, and they need to handle that in a safe and secure way. The transparency, accountability, and tracking of the cash can all be streamlined through Tidel’s solutions.

While car dealerships are moving towards this type of automation, Barclay revealed only 50% of all dealerships are using an automated system today. If a car dealership is looking for an automated cash system, the Tidel team is ready to provide the right solution. Give this podcast a listen for integration tips and technology solution breakdowns.

A new report published by Gartner Research says third-party hardware maintenance providers are coming into their own as large companies are moving away from OEMs for all their service needs and implementing hybrid maintenance solutions for their businesses. That's great news for companies like Reliant Technology], who have built a trusted reputation for guiding its clients to solutions that save money, are better customized, and more reactive to mission-critical situations.

Host Shelby Skrhak discusses the Gartner report with Reliant's Thomas Hodgson, senior account executive, on this episode of the MarketScale Software & Technology Podcast.

"People come to Reliant because they're getting pigeonholed by the manufacturer, thinking that forklifting their current solution is the route they have to go," Hodgson said.

Implementing a brand new system is a big hurdle -- both in terms of cost and knowledge-base -- for small and mid-size companies who use older, sometimes proprietary network systems. So when an OEM stops supporting older versions, companies feel they have no choice but to upgrade. But buying up to the "Cadillac of systems" isn't always the best solution, Hodgson said.

"In reality, companies can get the same level of service at a fraction of the cost by keeping their legacy hardware," he said.